This is being started to keep a host of friends and relatives informed as we search for a cure for Lin's colon cancer. It may include details that may help others who find that there is a ton of information out there - but few personal experiences (which may help you as you contemplate treatment).

Monday, August 16, 2010

Living Healthy, In Praise of Durian and Other Things

Thanks to Betty L Khoo-Kingsley, a long lost friend (now found again) we have been thinking about a more healthy lifestyle.

Lin knew Betty when she worked for SPH (formerly The Straits Times Group), editing their women's magazines. I also got to know Betty around the same time and we had and still have, many mutual friends.

We lost touch over the years and I made contact again when one of our friends emailed me about Betty's book, "Cancer Cured & Prevented Naturally". I obtained some to give to friends in Hong Kong and the USA, even before cancer raised it's ugly head in our lives.

I started to read her book but the inevitable happened and it joined all the partly read tomes beside my bed. Then this episode of our lives occurred and it was forgotten until we had returned to Singapore and discovered that Betty was also here.

So we met up again. Betty's transformation from editor of women's magazines to biodynamic gardener and believer in anthroposophy is nothing short of amazing, considering that it was not precipitated by a personal encounter with cancer.

In her book she mentions the death of a close friend and colleague, a medical doctor who changed careers and became a newspaper marketing and then periodicals man. I also had come to know him quite well and we'd have lunch every once in a while to bring each other up to date - the last time was shortly before we left for London and he fell to cancer.

Fortunately for all of us, all these events and spiritual 'awakening' have led her to writing, promoting and talking about ways we can help the earth and help ourselves.

I have to say that I was totally overwhelmed when we met again and even now, after reading the magazines and newsletters she left with us, I am not sure I have grasped even one percent of what she had to impart to us.

All of a sudden, I think about all the things I either have taken for granted or gone about doing automatically - like eating, sleeping, breathing, walking, and just going about our daily lives.

Many of us will not become as fervent or dedicated as Betty, but we can be more conscious and deliberate in our choices where until now it's been automatic. Sometimes we need to be more aware of what is around us.

Anyway, before I get more entangled in trying to find the right words to express myself, I thought I should list the non-organically produced foods that we can safely buy and eat.

It might not be 'pukka' to go this route but unless we can grow our own foods, there are some compromises we can make.

The following have protective skins or are less attractive to pests (and so have had less chemicals sprayed on them):

Onions, avocados, sweet corn, pineapple, mangoes, asparagus, sweet peas, kiwi fruit, cabbage, eggplant, papayas, water melons, broccolli, tomatoes and sweet potatoes. (Tomatoes were 'out' and now they are 'in' and no reason has been stated).

This list is by no means exhaustive, but for me it is a start.

It's also a sign that durian must be a fine fruit because it has thick skin and most come from jungles rather than plantations! Besides, I think their predators are man and animals rather than insects and plant diseases.

My other 'local' favourite, coconut, is good too. Nice thick husk and a hard shell to protect the 'coconut water' and flesh. And from what I have read, 'coconut water' is the perfect isotonic drink! Other medical benefits have been claimed (e.g. it was used an an IV in WWII when blood plasma was not available) but I do not know about the reliability of the sources.

RECENTLY, THIS WAS FORWARDED VIA BETTY:

This remedy is really effective - it was used in government hospitals in the 1970s and 1980s, for any patients who had frequent diarrhea, even cases of typhoid and cholera. Many were unable to eat food, as they vomited anything they ate, and also many were too weak even to stand up properly.

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and other forms of alternative therapies, if taken patiently over months, can often stabilize the body and eventually bring the disease under control, to such an extent that the patient does not need to take medicine anymore. In some cases and diseases, the condition is even rectified/cured (as the Chinese say, “theng gen” the roots of the disease are cut).

During the months of bringing the health condition under control, while taking TCM or any other form of alternative therapies, the patient must continue taken whatever medication their doctors have prescribed.

This is because Doctors' medicine can temporarily either slow the progress of the disease, or alleviate unwanted signs and symptoms (like lowering blood pressure, controlling pain etc ), as TCM and most alternative therapies take time to work, as they are based on natural ingredients like herbs, extracts from food ingredients - and thus will slowly rebalance the body over months. As the patient improves, automatically the doctor will reduce the medication.

THE EXACT RECIPE

You take a handful of rice and boil it in a large saucepan with lots of water. Like three or four large glasses.

Cool and drink the water.

If you are in a hurry, take the saucepan off the fire and dunk it in a frying pan or basin of cool water with ice cubes if necessary.

When drinking the rice water, make sure there is lots of it. Enough water must go in to line his guts from throat to other end, all 10 to 12 metres of it.

If you take rice, it stays in the stomach. If you take broth, some of it may go into the small intestine.

But if you take rice water in sufficient quantity, it will reach every centimetre of the small and large intestine.